Jeff Zedic wrote: > I know that I don't have any glare problems when I'm driving at night in the > UK. I still wonder why the USDOT wants us all to be blind at night! I think > they've based their syandard on some 50 year old nonsense......AGAIN! >
That's pretty much it. They claim the European pattern is not optimal for the U.S. because it doesn't throw enough light upward to light overhead freeway signs. I suspect European highways have overhead signs as well, though, and they don't seem to have any problems. Mostly I suspect it's bureaucratic inertia. The problem has in some ways gotten worse since they started allowing aero headlights. At least with the old sealed-beams you knew what you were getting. Now beam patterns are all over the map, with some cars having acceptable ones and others being abysmal. (All of them meet the letter of the rather loose DOT specification, of course.) Now they're collecting glare complains about HID lights, with the idea they might have to do something to about those. I suspect the problem could be solved with a decent beam pattern, but I don't know if they're seriously examining that option or not.
